A stuck bridge near South Norwalk disrupted Metro-North train traffic this morning.
As commuters took to their cars, I-95 jammed up.
Which spilled onto local roads. Here was the scene, from one end of the Post Road to the other:
And — thanks to GPS — side streets were pretty bad too.
Just another day in paradise.
Metro North and — hey, there’s plenty of blame to go around — Con Ed made a mess of things last week.
Westport commuters are a hardy bunch. They’ve endured snowstorms, hurricanes, derailments, locusts and cattle death. But the recent power failure has tried the patience of even the most Jobian train rider.
With prospects that delays and slow trains might continue for a while, Westporters are devising creative ways to get to New York.
If you’ve got a great idea, hit “Comments” and share it with the “06880” world. We’re all in this together!
These days, it’s almost impossible to get there from here.
This morning, Police Chief Dale Call was on duty at the Westport train station. He and a number of officers — many with high rank — made sure traffic flowed smoothly, and that buses bringing riders from points east had room to move.
Westport Police Chief Dale Call, on closed-to-passenger-cars Railroad Place this morning.
A few minutes ago, passengers arriving from Grand Central and points west spent a 2nd day boarding shuttle buses that would drop them at stations all the way to New Haven.
Those are scenes we figured would be repeated all week — if not far into the future — following Friday’s train derailment and wreck a few miles from here.
But Metro-North has announced that limited train service to New Haven begins at 3 p.m. today — right about now.
And the 1st train from New Haven to Grand Central leaves at 4:23 p.m. today.
Tomorrow (Wednesday), regular service resumes up and down the line.
That’s astonishing. In less than 4 days, Metro-North crews have completely cleaned up the huge mess from a mammoth train crash.
The next time there’s a hurricane, windstorm or other natural disaster, we’re hiring those guys.
The other day, a Metro-North train blew past its scheduled 8:04 p.m. stop in Westport. A few dozen riders had to get off in Fairfield, then wait for the next westbound train to go home.
If you were on that train, you were probably pretty pissed.
If you’re a regular on Railroad.net, you’re upset too.
But some of the commenters there — a website for train geeks — are not mad at Metro-North.
They blame the victims: Westporters.
Noel Weaver writes:
A train blew a station stop, SO WHAT!!!! It is not the first time and it won’t be the last time. I suspect if it had been say Fordham on an evening train instead of Westport nothing would have been said…
I blew a couple of stops in my career and in both cases nothing further came of it. I am human like everybody else.
Another commenter (“Rear of Signal”) chimes in:
This happens often enough that it’s not unheard of, but still rare. You know how often trains blow Yankee Stadium, or FF-Metro or even blown Stamford?
This one makes the news because some influential people call the local media in a hypocritical attempt to negate their own vanity. Everyone needs to get off of their moral high-horse and get on with their lives.
A train crew blew past Westport earlier this month.
Not all the commenters are so black-and-white. (Or as harsh as those who demand the entire crew on that train be fired.)
“Secaucus Junction” says:
You know, if I was an engineer, I think this sort of thing would happen to me too. It’s got to be confusing out there remembering which stops you are supposed to make when you are on different trains all the time. Maybe a simple brain fart by the engineer.
Which brought this response:
It’s pretty hard to miss Westport. The track speed in the station is only 40 MPH. Both the engineer and conductor are responsible for ensuring that trains stop where they’re supposed to. But, do we know if the train was on a platform track? Or, could it have been misrouted? I’m sure (Metro-North) will investigate this incident, especially since it has hit the newspapers.
And this:
I was on that train. Leaving South Norwalk, conductor announced “Westport next.” We blew through Westport without the slightest speed reduction. No announcements, no attempt to stop in Greens Farm or Southport.
Maybe the train got hijacked?
At Fairfield the was almost a riot when we finally stopped. We were told that the next train back to Westport would be in 45 minutes. Nothing further, no apology, no real acknowledgment of a serious screw-up….
This was completely inexcusable. The fact that the train crew kinda sorta pretended it didn’t happen makes it worse.
Yeah, yeah, I know, I don’t work in the field so I don’t know what it’s like. Whatever. MNRR has a problem.
Part of that problem, it seems, is that a few employees don’t think too highly of their customers.
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